Monsters and Wild Things Crafts

Monster Crafts and Learning Activities for Children

Monster Paper Bag Craft and Learning Activity

These little monsters can be used as fun toys for children of all ages. The mouths are made with Chenille stems so they can be posed into many different shapes. They are a little difficult to make so younger Children will need help forming the bag into the monster shape, but they will enjoy painting, decorating, and posing the mouth.

This is a great craft for large groups because it costs less than fifteen cents a piece to make!

Use this craft to review math and spelling words, or as an incentive to learning.

What you will need:

Paper Lunch Bags

Chenille Stems

Acrylic Paint and Paint Brushes

Scissors

Recycled Plastic Grocery Bags

2 oz. Bottle of Paint or Something Similar that is About 2 1/4" Wide

Masking Tape and/or Low Temperature Glue Gun

Craft Foam, Feather Boa, and Wiggle Eyes

How to Make the Paper Bag Monster:

1. Stuff two to three plastic grocery bags into the bottom of the paper lunch bag. Gather up the bag just above the stuffed plastic bags. Pull up on the sides of the bag to make them straight.

2. Open the bag just enough to place the paint bottle into the center of the bag so that it is standing up. Gather up the bag again around the bottle and secure it with a Chenille stem.

3. Carefully bend down the top of the bag over the sides of the bag bringing it down over the bottom of the bag so that it overlaps. Gllue the overlapping sides together to form a ball-like shape.

4. Remove the paint bottle.

5. Cut feet and arm shapes from craft foam and glue them to the bag. (A pattern for the feet, arms, and eyes are available to members.)

6. Paint the bag with water color paint or other paint and let it dry.

7. When the paint is dry carefully remove the plastic bags from the monster's mouth.

8. To finish glue on googly eyes and parts of a feather boa for the hair. You can also add teeth and tongues cut from craft foam.

These paper bag monsters can be used for many home school learning activities:

1. Feed the Monster Game

Give each child a paper bag monster. Take turns having the children spell or read a word. If a child is correct, he gets to feed his monster. Child get to eat whatever they have fed their monsters.

2. Writing Activity

Have your children paint and decorate paper bag monsters and then write a short story about their monsters. Encourage them to use emotion words such as sad, happy, glad, excited mad, etc. Have them read their stories and pose the monsters mouth each time they read about a different emotion.

3. Monster Words Reading Activity (See Below)

Use the paper bag monster to store monster words. When your child comes across a monster word in his reading, have him write the word on a small piece of paper, roll it up and feed it to his paper bag monster. When the monster if full have him take out the pieces of papers and read the monster words.

4. Reading Monster Words

Write monster words on sheets of paper and place them in the paper bag monsters mouth. Remove one word at a time and challenge your children to read the monster words.

Turn your children into monster readers with these fun reading incentives. Print out the monster reader bookmark and have your children write the names of the books they have read on the stack of books. Give them a monster prize when they have filled in all the books.

Tell your children that the Hungry Green Reading Monster loves to eat big words. Encourage them to write the new words they have learned while reading on pieces of paper and feed them to the hungry monster.

You can find directions on how to make the Milk Jug Monster below. You can also use this as a craft. Just precut the jugs and spray them with primer paint before having your children paint them.

1. Hold a plastic fork in your left hand (if you are right-handed)so that it is parallel to the table with the tines facing down as shown in the diagram to the right.

2. Hold the lighter with your right hand underneath the fork near the top of the handle where the head of the fork meets the handle. (See diagram to the right.) *Do not hold the lighter too close to the fork because it could catch fire. You only want to heat it up. (This part of the craft is for adults only. Children should not use lighters.) When the fork starts to melt and bend remove the lighter and bend the head of the fork down so that it meets the handle. Hold it in place for about ten seconds until the plastic hardens.

3. You can break off some of the tines by just snapping them off. Place your fingernail on the tine where you would like it to break off and then bend the tine up until it snaps off.

4. Use pom poms or craft foam to make the monster's bodies. If you use craft foam, cut a hole in the foam for the mouth and stick the tines through the hole.

5. Glue on wiggle eyes and part of a feather boa for the monster's hair.

6. Place the handle of the fork in your pocket and let the monster hang over your pocket.

Wild Things - Little Monster Cup Craft

What you will need:

9-oz. paper cups of different colors

Tape

Glue

Colored Paper

Fake Fur

Feather Boas

Feathers

Black Permanent Marker

Scissors

How to Make the Paper Cup Monsters:

1. Draw monster or wild thing faces, arms, and feet onto colored paper, or use white paper and then color them with colored pencils, and then cut them out. (Patternsfor this craft are available to members of Danielle's Place.)

2. To make the bottom cup fit inside the top cup cut slits about one inch apart all around the top of one cup about one inch deep. Fold in the top of the cup where you made the slits. Place another cup over the cut cup so that it is upside down. Draw a line down the center of the bottom cup to make it look like two separate legs.

3. Glue the head, arms, and feet onto the cups.

4. To finish glue feathers, pieces of feather boa, or fake fur to the heads.

Emotions Monster Cup Puppet Craft

1.Patterns for this craft are available to members of Danielle's Place. Children color, cut out, and then glue the parts to paper cups.

2. To make the bottom cup fit inside the top cup cut slits about one inch apart all around the top of one cup about one inch deep. Fold in the top of the cup where you made the slits. Place another cup over the cut cup so that it is upside down. (See picture to the left.) Draw a line down the center of the bottom cup to make it look like two separate legs.

3. Glue the head, arms, and feet onto the cups.

4. To finish glue feathers, pieces of feather boa, or fake fur to the heads.

Use this craft to go along with the book "Glad Monster, Sad Monster
" by Ed Emberley. Children talk about what makes them sad, glad, etc. and try on die-cut masks from the book.

5. Why do you think that Max destroyed the heart that he had made for his sister, Claire?

6. What would your mom do if you had made the same mess in your sister's room?

7. Do you think it made Max feel good to destroy the gift? What should he have done instead?

8. How did Max's mom show he loved him? Even though she had a lot of work to do and she could lose her job if she didn't finish her work, she took the time to listen to him and type his story.

9. Why do you think Max told the story about the vampire that lost all his teeth and no one would be his friend anymore because he couldn't be a vampire anymore?

10. Max teacher said, "The sun will die like all things; it is just fuel burning ferociously. I'm sure by that time the human race will have fallen to any number of calamities, war, pollution, global warming, earthquakes, meteors, etc." How do you think that made Max feel?

11. How do you think Max felt when his mom wouldn't play with him because she was spending time with her boyfriend?

12. Why do you think Max put on his wolf suit and acted angry and disobedient? Do you think he did it before? Why do you think his mother said Max was out of control? Why would Max say it wasn't his fault? Who do you think he was referring to when he said, "I hate you."?

14. Why do you think Carol said, "No one wants to be on my side. Fine, I'll be on my own side, by myself."

15. Why did Max start destroying the Wild Thing's homes?

16. When Emil the Chicken stops Max and says, "Hey, what are you doing?" Max replies, "I'm just helping?" Emil then asks, "By smashing our houses? We worked very hard on these and then you, sir, start, "helping." Do you think Max realized that he was destroying someone's home?

17. How was Max being selfish? - He didn't consider how other people would feel if he destroyed their homes.

18. Max makes up a big story about being a king. Do you think he was lying? Is it good to lie in some situations?

19. When Max was asked if he could make everything right, he answered, "yes". He also agreed that he could get rid of loneliness and keep out all the sadness? The wild things believed he was going to make them happy. Why do you think Max said that?

20. What do you think Judith meant when she said, "But happy isn't always the best way to be happy."

21. Douglas the chicken was sad because he thought no one paid attention to him. Do you ever feel that way?

22. What things in Max's dream were taken from real life?

Max is looking at a toy boat - Max sails in a boat in his dream.

Max has a ball made of twisted twigs or something else near his bead - The wild things live in homes that look like balls of twigs.

Carol is breaking up houses because KW left - Max messed up his sister's room because she left and didn't help.

2. Cut 1/2" by 2 1/2" strips from the animal print tissue paper and glue them to the bookmark. Don't worry about the edges of the strips not fitting on the book mark. .

4. When the glue is dry cut off any paper that hangs over the edge of the bookmark to make it straight.

5. Cover the back and front with clear packaging tape.

6. To finish punch a hole in the top of the bookmark. Fold a 12" piece of yarn, ribbon, or floss in half and insert the folded end into the hole in the bookmark pulling it through about one inch. Bring the other end of the folded ribbon or yarn over and insert it through the folded, looped end that is in the bookmark. Pull it through the loop until it is tight.

Sock Monster Match Card Game

Children of all ages will love this game. Match up the socks and try to figure out which sock the sock monster ate, but be careful that the monster doesn't eat you!

1. Remove the two sock monster cards, place all the cards in a pile and mix them up. Remove one card from the pile without looking at it and place it to the side. Replace the sock monster cards and mix them up again.

2. Place the cards (except the one you placed aside) face down in rows in the middle of the table without looking at them.

3. Players take turns turning over two cards trying to find socks that match. If a player gets a match, he keeps the cards and takes another turn until he doesn't make a match. Then the next player takes a turn.

4. If a player turns over one sock monster during his turn, he may try to guess what sock the monster ate (the card that was removed from the deck) by describing the sock. If the player guesses, he then turns over the card that was placed aside at the beginning of the game to see if he is correct. If he is correct, he receives 40 extra points, and the game continues until all the cards have been picked up. If he is wrong, he loses all his points, and that round is over.

5. If a player turns over both sock monster cards on his play, that round is over and that player loses all his points. Collect all the cards, add up the scores for that round, and start another round. Players receive 10 points for each card they collect.